Video | Does Arthritis Mean You’ll Have to Live With Pain Forever?

So have you been diagnosed with arthritis anywhere in your body? guess what? If you are over 45 or 50, you probably have about a 50/50 chance that some of the joints in your body have some degree of wear and tear. Osteoarthritis, what we would call degenerative arthritis, where the joints space is narrowed, the cartilage is worn down a little bit, you might even have a little bit of spurring in there. If you’re 65 or better, odds of you having degenerative arthritis somewhere in your body is almost approaching 100%. So, what does that mean? Does that mean that you’re going to be in pain, that you’re going to have mobility and activities limited? No. Not necessarily, there does not seem to be a direct one to one correlation when you look at an X-ray of someone’s joint as to how much pain or lack of mobility or disability that they’re going to have. Over the years in my practice in dealing with sports injuries and you know, joint pain I have seen so many X-rays where the patient had no findings of degeneration but they had a lot of pain. And the opposite was true, quite often, where there was a lot of degenerative changes, bone spurs, and the person was just active and doing everything they wanted to do, and you know having minimal or no pain whatsoever. So, arthritis the degenerative type of arthritis is what I’m talking about is pretty common as we get older, but it does not mean that you’re going to have constant pain or that your activities are going to be extremely limited. In fact, one of the best things that you can do is stay active. Now, you know I do recommend that the activities that you choose most of the time are on the lower impact side. Impact is good, full squats are good as I mentioned in another video, but it’s not something you probably want to do for an hour every day. So, rebounding, jumping on a mini-tramp is great for your joints and to help you stay mobile. Walking, bicycling, swimming is great, pilates, yoga, tai chi, I still play a lot of tennis. You know, it’s pretty hard on the joints, but I do those things with nutrition and adequate sleep and bodywork including acupuncture that helps my whole body stay in shape. So, just because you have arthritis, doesn’t mean that you have to be in pain and if you do currently have some pain, it could be due to actually systemic inflammation in your body and I suggest that you read my article on three alternatives to NSAIDs and consider using some of those to reduce inflammation in your body and help your pain.

Dr. Kathleen Perry is a Doctor of Chiropractic, licensed by the State of Texas. DISCLAIMER: In view of the complex, individual nature of health and fitness issues, this blog, and the ideas, programs, procedures and suggestions contained within it are not intended to replace the advice and supervision of your doctor or personal health care provider. Information on this blog is provided for general educational purposes only and is not intended to constitute (1) medical advice, (2) the provision of health care diagnosis or treatment, or (3) the creation of a physician-patient or clinical relationship. If you have or suspect that you have a medical problem, contact your health care provider promptly.